six things about satsuki momoi
by expiration
Summary: because she is more than just a manager - she is also their friend. (cross-posted on ao3)


disclaimer: i don't own knb (i wouldn't be a poor pre-med student if i did)

i recently rewatched knb for like the 15th time and i have too many emotions for these precious lil children. i love momoi almost as much as i love aomine, and she needs more recognition tbh ;;;

* * *

Momoi really, really likes cute things.

She couldn't bear to part with the shirt Riko had lent her long ago, when she ran to Seirin to find Kuroko because Aomine had been so so cruel to her.

(Sometimes she still hears him saying that he never wants to see her again and she falters and questions herself. But then she looks around and he and Kuroko and the rest of the Generation of Miracles are still by her side, so she straightens up, smiles wider, and focuses on the _now_.)

The shirt had clung to her body and had most of the Seirin team drooling, but she wanted to keep it because of the adorable teddy bear print on the front.

It took a while for Kuroko to persuade her to return the shirt to his coach and it was only when he had said that Riko would probably kill them all in a fit of anger, and he would be one of the ones killed, that she very reluctantly returned the shirt.

She wasn't sad for long because a few days later, a package from Kuroko arrived on her doorstep. And when she opened it, it was a shirt that had a similar print, but she loved it even more because it was Kuroko who got it for her.

* * *

Almost everyone knows how much Momoi adores the phantom sixth man of Teiko. She's obsessed with him in a way that was much different from the way Aomine obsesses over Kuroko.

(The Touou ace didn't even seem to realize how much he missed his best friend, or at least the person closest to that, and Momoi didn't count.

Once, Imayoshi had joked that Aomine seemed like an overly attached ex, and Aomine didn't show up for practice for three weeks, even with the threats to burn his precious Horikita Mai, not that they actually pulled through with that because they didn't want to risk their best player leaving the team.

When he did come back and heard a benchwarmer asking what was so special about Kuroko anyways, he gripped the kid's collar and shook him because what could outsiders possibly know about Tetsu?

There were a few giggles at the scene that were immediately shut down by Aomine's fierce scowl, and the whole team swore they never saw him with that many wrinkles on his face - but they didn't dare joke about that until almost a month after that incident.)

By the end of the Winter Cup, everyone knew why Aomine is so defensive of Kuroko, but no one really understood why Momoi liked the Seirin player as much as she does.

She never gives a straightforward answer when asked about it, instead falling into her heart eye mode, and no one can get a coherent sentence out of her for the next few minutes. Almost everyone thinks it's just a phase, just blind infatuation, but Aomine knows better - he's seen her staring into space as she twirls an old popsicle stick that says "winner" on one side.

* * *

People see Momoi and think "what a pretty girl" and they think she's part of the team maybe as a cheerleader or maybe because she has a crush on one of the players or maybe both.

But the people she's worked with and are working with know better.

She's there because she genuinely loves basketball, her passion for the sport rivalling the Generation of Miracles themselves. Spectators don't see how great of an asset she is to the team she manages, nor do they realize how smart she actually is, and instead think she's a ditzy little girl who doesn't know what's going on.

They don't know how good she is at collecting and analyzing data of players on her team and other teams. Nor do they know how she's actually one of the top students in her class.

It was the same in Teiko, the way people don't think much of Momoi other than her looks, but even then, Midorima picked up on how intelligent the pink-haired girl was.

(Once, Takao mentioned how pretty Momoi was, and Midorima had frowned.

"She's more than just a pretty face, Takao," he chided.

The Shutoku point guard said nothing in response, only giving the other boy a strange look because since when does the taller boy defend _anyone_? When Midorima asked him a few weeks later to take him to Touou High with his arms full of textbooks, Takao thought nothing of it since he made strange requests all the time.

But when they arrived to meet Momoi, he sent Midorima off with a sly smirk. "Work hard now, Shin-chan!"

The only reply he had gotten was a grunt and severe frown.)

In Teiko, before their talents developed and they all went their own ways, Midorima had once caught Momoi tutoring Kise in math. He had paused for a second then continued on because it's _Kise_ , and everyone knows that the blonde is good at sports, not school. It wasn't until after his game of shogi with Akashi that he realized why he had paused. _Momoi_ was the tutor.

He was a friend of Momoi, but never really tried to get to know her. But he couldn't get rid of the image of her as a tutor, and decided to ask her about notes for one of the classes they shared. He reassured himself that he didn't want to be her friend, that this was only for his benefit.

But after a week of exchanging notes with her and watching her compile data of the players the Teiko basketball team would go against, Midorima bore a grudging respect for the pinkette and maybe even considered her as more than a mere acquaintance.

* * *

In the same way Momoi became notorious as an analyst, she became infamous for her inedible cooking.

She was arguably worse than Riko who, when given a push in the right direction and her vitamin powders taken away from her, could cook a decent meal. Momoi was simply hopeless.

(After Kuroko had defended her against some of the older kids, she decided to repay him with some homemade cooking. It was a sweet gesture - until Kuroko took his first bite.

Momoi liked to claim that that had been what really united the Generation of Miracles, and in a way, she wasn't wrong.

They were thrown into a frenzy when Kuroko started choking and his face slowly turned blueish gray. Aomine had tried to smack the food out of Kuroko, which had only resulted in the smaller boy sustaining bruises for the next week. Kise and Midorima panicked in their own ways, the former holding Kuroko in a death grip while the latter rambled on about how Aquarius had the worst luck that day and how Kuroko should have carried around his lucky item. Even Murasakibara looked concerned, though he did nothing to help. In the end, it was Akashi who had really resolved the problem by pushing everyone else away and performing the Heimlich maneuver on Kuroko.

Since then, they all shut down Momoi's attempts to cook as much as they could, because her cooking could quite possibly cause death. Murasakibara had even willingly shared his snacks with Kuroko and Akashi, and very reluctantly with Aomine, Kise, and Midorima. But Momoi always counted that as her win because not just anyone could make the purple haired giant share his precious snacks.)

There had been one time the pinkette managed to trick Murasakibara into eating her cooking, and he refused to talk to her for a week.

And then he showed up with a bag of snacks he made himself and dumped it on Momoi's desk.

"This is actual cooking, Sacchin."

She had thanked him profusely and almost cried at the the beauty and the heavenly taste of the snacks, and made plans to convince Murasakibara to cook more for her.

But she didn't have to put the plans into motion because the next time she showed up for their practice, Murasakibara had a snack waiting for her, and it became a tradition for him to bring her homemade snacks every practice.

* * *

As the newest recruit, Kise proved himself well, but he had always felt like the rest of the first string - the other boys who, including Kise, would eventually be known as the Generation of Miracles - never truly accepted him, at least not until later.

Before he had even learned what made Kuroko so special, he met Momoi, one of the managers of the team and the first friend he made.

Perhaps it was because she was older than him, but she always felt like an older sister to him, even more than his actual sister.

As manager, she's supposed to be there for the players and support the team, but she always takes it an extra step. She gets extra snacks for Murasakibara, new rolls of tape for Midorima, and goes over stats with Akashi and Nijimura. She's there to prod Aomine when he tries to slack off and she does her best to notice Kuroko when no one else can (she fails often at this, but she tries anyways). Kise sees all this and huffs in annoyance when they don't even give her a word of thanks, with the exceptions of Kuroko, Akashi, and Nijimura.

(He asked her about that once, when she was tutoring him in science, about how she could be so nice to them when they were so rude to her. She had smiled at him and said that's just how they are, and they thank her in their own way. He was still doubtful but lets it go - if Momoi says it's alright, then it's alright.)

After his game with Kuroko and his acceptance that the phantom player is indeed an asset to the team, it felt like Kise himself was accepted by the other first string players.

It was then that he realized what Momoi had meant.

Murasakibara always had a snack to spare for the manager, Midorima would always share notes with her, and Aomine defended her when someone had something mean to say about her.

All of them depended on Momoi, and in a way, they saw her as an older sister just as he did.

Even after they went into high school, Momoi was the sister who, along with Kuroko, forced them to make up and meet up. In a way, Kise was thankful for her presence in their lives, but he was still a little jealous - Momoi is _his_ older sister.

* * *

The awakening of the Generation of Miracles' talents and the events that happened after had affected all of them in a negative way, most obviously in Kuroko.

But no one ever really realized the effects it had on Momoi.

No one, not even Kuroko, knew how much she cried for the group of friends who drifted away from each other and distanced themselves from everyone else. They didn't know how much she missed them wanting her around, and their absence made her life feel that much emptier.

(In those many months, Momoi wished there was one thing she could change about herself. She always let herself get so attached and could never find it in herself to let go. In that aspect, she was almost jealous of the boys who had let go so easily and never turned back.)

She had found solace in knowing Kuroko felt the same loss, and then there was the fateful day he said that things aren't going to be the same anymore.

Of course, Kuroko also started his own war with the Generation of Miracles, and she thinks it's an insult that he's not considered one of them because in a way, Kuroko had _performed_ a miracle. Momoi may have forced them to be in the same vicinity, but Kuroko was the one who repaired their bonds. He had also broken through _Akashi_ , bringing back the old one they knew and loved.

Incidentally, it was Akashi who saw her tears when they were playing basketball with each other on Kuroko's birthday. He was also the one who took the first step to really include her, when he switched places with her so she could play too.

(She was always part of the group but they never really showed any sign that they cared whether or not she was there. Later that night at Kagami's house, Akashi asked her about the data she collected on the Rakuzan players, and she suddenly felt like she was 14 again, going over stats with Akashi and Nijimura after practices.

It wasn't until Akashi offered her a tissue that she realized she was crying, and that act of kindness only made her cry harder. How long had it been since Akashi showed concern for someone else without an ulterior motive?

She ended up sobbing into his shirt, much to her embarrassment for days later, and had interrupted the festivities as everyone rushed to comfort her and ask what was wrong. She could only laugh and say that she's happier than she's ever been.)

So when she stood up from the bench and the boys wanted her to join their game, tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

All of them are a little broken and trying to glue together the pieces of themselves that Teiko had shattered, but her boys were back, and for now, that's more than enough for her.


End file.
